Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-01-29
A BOOK OF TRAVELS
WRITTEN BY A MAN WHO HAD
NEVER BEEN ABROAD.

q gentleman who wa never outside OF
New York city until after his book was
published. After its Publication the au-
Thor paid himself the compliment OF read
ing il, and IL so interested him that he
thought he would like TO go to Europe.
Tho worl. was in its eleventh edition and
had made a great popular hit when the
author bought a ticket on the White Star
line and embarked for foreign lands. His
ocean voyage and arrival in the old world
were delightful, for lie was "a traveller who
had never seen anything and TO whom
everything had the charm VI novelty.
After spending a year in looking upon
things that he had described. this liar ~
Traveller, who wrote his impressions fist
and saw his sights slterward, embarked
for home, and arrived in New York the
other day on the steamship Adrlatic.
He sat last night in a tOly uptown hotel
BY a cracking lire and chatted with a
friend. After lighting a fresh cigar he
said: ''Yes, that book was a fake from
beginning 10 end"
SHOW did you come TO write il first and
do your travelling afterwaydf'
swell, one summer day, lOur years ago,
when | was hard pressed aud hahn't done
anything for q week but "A pun aud n scurvy
set of neral verses, for which | got $50.
though the moral alone was worth 81, an
out Ut town publisher came 10 me and
asked me n write a book on foreign
travel told hun | had never Travelled
fifty miles IN my life. He said 1t didn't
make any difference, as il was not neces-
nry to uUNel 10 write a book. He asked
me not TO feel dlnidcnt, and said that he
hail never Travelled himself. Well said
!, ii you We never been away from home,
and I've never been away from home, the
book may he ridiculous No. he re-
piled; they will lOk upon il as a new
view u Europe The publisher then told
me tltt he had a proof reader who had
been u tramp in Europe, and who would
correct any glaring mistakes | might
make. We struck a bargain. | got all
the money l could In advance and went 70
work.
slow could you describe what you had
not seem"
81 will tell you | got no end OF en-.
cyclopcdg.s and gnide books and photo
graphs. read seven or eight hours IA day
and male cOpiOus notes. | saw Europe
through the eyes of nifty people. | col
lected n lot Of petty facts of no interest In
give realism 20 the work. Then mapped
ouL the book in a mathematical way and
decided how much | would give 10 each
part of my subject. Then | settled myself
NJ a desk in my garnet and went to writ
ing. One Of the difficulties was 10 get en-
rapport with my scheme. l wrote up
Venice after q days fishing on ~Sheepshead
bay. 1 spent W. days in the Catskills
before writing up the Alps. wrote the
chapter on an hour in the %sultan's seraglio
smoking an old corncob pipe in my garrei
aud carrying on an Innocent Irritation with
. red headed girl in a tenement window
opposite. When | wanted to write mp the
azzaroni of Naples | went into Mulberry
street and studied the Italians in the alleys
and courts there. | e up to Jones
WoOl and Wendell park Ia prepare to
write UP the beer gardens Of Vienna and
their German holiday makers. Before
writing Of the Malay sailors on the ships
at London | visited the Malay colony in
New York. Before | got through my
book L discovered that New York WIS an
epitome of Europe, and that ! ouly had IA
take a street car 20 visit the nations OF the
earth.
"The book was a long and weary job,
but at last ! got through with IL and sent
II TO the publisher. The proofreader
took hold Of il then. believe that he
had slept in every hTlRe and been in
every jail and visited every interesting
place in Europe. lie made so many
wall lille corrections that four or 1--WE
chf.rters of the book had To he rewritten.
The bpok was rushed through the press,
literally advertised and put on the market
three years ago. had worked the pub
fisher for all he was worth while I waa
sending In the manuscript and was coE-
siderably ahead OF him, and so that was
the last ! ever expected to hear OF my
astonishing travels. The book was favor
ably reviewed by the press, which said II
was the work Of m original observer,
and that some of the descriptive passages
were line hits Of realistic writing.
"The first edition brought me a dress
coat and one OF those coffin shirt fronts.
I found paragraphs in the newspapers
speaking ut me as the celebrated trav-
eler.' | hogan To think that | was no
longer a hack writer, but q man OF letters,
and when I received an invitation to a
fashionable reception In Fifth avenue |
got myself up regardless of expense, and
concluded that I must be n literary artist.
1 found that my hosts we're lion hunters,
who had picked on me as q great traveller,
not as a writer, and wanted to parade me
- an evidence Of their social success. I
had never been in society, and no one
knew anything ahout mr.; SO no one could
say / had never been To Europe. !
thought would carry out the farce. So
I went "a a score Of teas and kettleirums
that winter. where ] was always meeting
people who had been to Europe fifteen or
sixteen times, aud was ever In danger OF
exposing my ignorance. To avoid such q
catastrophe ! read up petty, ont Of the
way places, barren OF interest, where no
body had ever been, and when ! got 10 q
party and was pushed TO the wall for an
account Of my travels, I would describe
some by-path 81 Europe that no one had
sver traversed, or some Insignificant
village that no traveller had ever seen.
az found that this expedient. which I
resorted to out Of sheer desperation,
greatly increased my reputation. The
people said that | was a. familiar with the
remotest hooks and corners of Europe a.
ordinary travellers were with the most
familiar places, like London and Paris.
So the book Of European travel went
along boomingiy, and had soon covered
eight editions.
"onc day, two years after IL was writ
ten, and when I had quite forgotten IL, I
picked mp n book in a friends Office and
read II 10 kill time while ] was waiting.
IL was n work describing travels In
Europe, and | became very much fas-
cinated by H. IL interested me so much
TINT ] forgot that l wrote IL, and soon had
0rsai fniIh In "A and ronul,nd IN 40 IN